Atelier Faber transforms old well site with ‘solum’
Atelier Faber presents Solum, a spatial and landscaped installation set on the site of an old well in Luxembourg City that highlights the gradual recovery of soil porosity, an often-overlooked ecological process. Through a stark composition of reeds and local sandstone, the project, presented at LUGA, Luxembourg’s international exhibition of urban gardens, traces how inert, compacted earth is reclaimed by living organisms, restoring the permeability needed to buffer droughts, absorb rainfall, and stabilize the urban water cycle.
The architects layer the materials, tied directly to the hydrological history of the region, vertically and horizontally. A dense, linear band of reeds, used as an allegory of wetlands, hovers above pillars of Luxembourg sandstone, the geological foundation responsible for forming the country’s largest aquifer. This juxtaposition forms a deliberately archaic, almost primeval landscape that foregrounds the slow climatic intelligence of natural systems.
all images by Giaime Meloni, unless stated otherwise
Rewilding a Post-Industrial Landscape in Luxembourg
Luca Antognoli and Gabriel Pontoizeau of Atelier Faber ground Solum in the site’s own post-industrial ecology. With human activity long withdrawn from the former well, the land has restarted its biological clock. Vegetation has re-established itself without irrigation, intervention, or curation, and the resulting flora, resilient by necessity, are precisely the species most adapted to the soil and microclimate. The design team responds to this spontaneous ecosystem by reinforcing it. Landscaping focuses on increasing shrub density, introducing ruderal annual perennials in nitrogen-rich pockets, and complementing the dry zones with hardy grasses and annual plants.
The structure itself is intentionally minimal in material palette, composed only of reeds and Luxembourg sandstone. The pairing mirrors the conceptual stance of the installation, a reminder that soil permeability is shaped by geology and living systems that colonize it over time.
Atelier Faber presents Solum | image by LUGA
a spatial and landscaped installation set on the site of an old well in Luxembourg City
highlighting the gradual recovery of soil porosity
a stark composition of reeds and local sandstone
the project was presented at LUGA
the project traces how inert, compacted earth is reclaimed by living organisms
restoring the permeability needed to buffer droughts